Academic Support. Academic Support encompasses campus programs and services that assist faculty in their teaching and research and that assist students to improve the quality of their academic experiences. Academic support for students may include one or more of the following services: academic advising, career exploration, computer literacy, developmental reading, math, writing, and study skills, orientation for freshmen and transfer students, study skills, supplemental instruction, testing, tutoring, and services for students with special needs. From Higher Education in the United States: An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO Publishers (Publication date, November 2001)

Academic Support Center. Academic Support Center is a campus facility housing or brokering academic support programs and services. A Virtual Academic Support Center is an academic support center on the web.

Adult Learners. "An individual whose major life role is something other than full-time student." A.W. Chickering (1983). THE COMMISSION ON HIGHER EDUCATION AND THE ADULT LEARNER, (unpublished paper)

"A person who is a high school graduate or holder of a GED, and who has been away from formal education for at least two years. The person may hold either a full- or part-time job, have established his/her own home and assumed roles other than that of student. The adult learner is often a part-time learner since education is often not his/her primary concern." Polson, C. and others. ADVISING ADULT LEARNERS. NACADA TASK FORCE REPORT. Pomona, NJ: National Academic Advising Association. EDRS Document ED 277 902.

Benchmarking. "A benchmark is a standard of excellence or achievement used to compare and measure similar things. It is a new technique for identifying measurable successes of others and applying then to your own organization. The benchmarking process compares an organizations practices, processes and outcomes to standards of excellence in a systematic way. It is a process that can also be used to design a new system or model. The best practice indicators are standards of excellence to help you identify and plan your own program possibilities and enable you to identify what exemplary sites in our study you would like to match or exceed. Benchmarking challenges you to see what made it work for others 'their secrets to success' and how you can develop a unique approach that will meet the needs of all your stakeholders. It is not a means for duplicating but a way of defining the best and moving beyond that standard to create your own exemplary system." North Harris Montgomery CC District, What is Benchmarking? Retrieved December 14, 2004 from http://www.nhmccd.edu/contracts/toolbox/whatbnch.html

Best Practices. "A Best Practice is comprised of policies, principles, standards, guidelines, and procedures that contribute to the highest, most resource-effective performance of a discipline. Best Practices are based upon a broad range of experience, knowledge, and extensive work with industry leading clients." Retrieved December 15, 2004 from Ciber White Papers, A Best Practices Assessment,

Best Practices. “…best practices would include not only general guidelines but also specific practical suggestions for designing the best possible instructional, program, and instructional components of effective developmental education. Furthermore, these best practices would be based on studies of the nation’s most effective developmental programs and emphasize, actions, services, and concepts that could be applied by any college campus with a serious interest in improving developmental education.” Boylan, H. R. (2002). What Works: Research-based Practices in Developmental Education. Boone, NC: Continuous Quality Improvement Network with the National Center  for Developmental Education, p. 1

Best Practices. " Best practices refer to organizational, administrative, instructional, counseling, advising, and tutoring activities engaged in by highly successful developmental programs. These practices are typically validated by the research and the literature in developmental education." Boylan, H. R. (2002). What Works: Research-based Practices in Developmental Education. Boone, NC: Continuous Quality Improvement Network with the National Center  for Developmental Education, p. 3.

Best Practices of Learning Support Centers. "Best Practices are defined as elements and activities that the institution perceives as congruent with its mission and the concomitant mission of its academic support center aka learning support center." Christ, F. L. "Best Practices of Learning Support Centers," a presentation at the 2005 Winter Institute, Austin, Texas, January 4, 2005.

Compensatory programs. "Compensatory programs are designed to successfully sustain minority students in the life of the institution by providing, financial, personal, and academic support. Students qualify for these programs on the basis of minority racial or ethnic status, economic need, educational disadvantagement, or classification as being first generation to attend college. The result of affirmative action legislation, these programs are identified acronimically such as TRIO, EOP, and VEA Disadvantaged. While promoting an environment of multicultural pluralism, they provide intensive help through basic skills instruction, tutoring, counseling, and culturally enriching activities such as field trips to galleries and museums as well as visits to theatrical and musical performances. Purposefully assigned to assist these populations. directors and staff coordinate retention strategies in conjunction with the faculty and non-teaching professional staff." Kerstiens, G.. (1997). Taxonomy of learning support services," In Mioduski, S. and G. Enright (eds), PROCEEDINGS OF THE 15TH AND 16TH ANNUAL INSTITUTES FOR LEARNING ASSISTANCE PROFESSIONALS: 1994 AND 1995. Tucson, AZ: University Learning Center, University of Arizona, 48-51.

Deeper Learning. ."...deeper learning occurs when students can “learn much more, learn it earlier and more easily, and fundamentally learn it with a pleasure and commitment that only a privileged few now feel toward school learning.” DiSessa's (2000) Hiwassee College Sullivan County Community College

Just In Time Learning . A phrase used to describe the teaching of a skill when it is needed and for what activity it is needed.

Learning & Study Support may include goal setting, time management, task organization, study-reading, notemaking, test strategies, fact and concept memorization, researching and writing course papers, attitude adjustment, and stress reduction.

Learning Assistants (a term used by RPI's Advising & Learning Asistance center).    "... peers who have successfully completed at least a year at Rensselaer, assist first year students in making the transition from high school to college. The Learning Assistants act as the outreach arm of Advising and Learning Assistance Center by living alongside of the first year students and helping them with academic matters through workshops and one-on-one contact."

Learning Community.

"Integrated Learning Communities are intentional curriculum restructuring efforts that thematically link or cluster during a given term and enroll a cohort of students. Learning Communities aim to provide students with greater curricular coherence, and to provide both students and faculty an opportunity for increased intellectual interaction and shared inquiry." -- Washington Center News, Spring 1995.

Learning Disabilities. "Learning disabilities is a generic term that refers to a heterogeneous group of disorders manifested by significant difficulties in the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning or mathematical abilities. These disorders are intrinsic to the individual and presumed to be due to central nervous system dysfunction. Even though a learning disability may occur concomitantly with other handicapping conditions (e.g., sensory impairment, mental retardation, social and emotional disturbance) or environmental influences (e.g., cultural differences, insufficient/inappropriate instruction, psychogenic factors), it is not the direct result of those conditions or influences." Hammill, D.D., Leigh, J.E., McNutt,G., and Larsen, .C. (1981). A new definition of learning disabilities. LEARNING DISABILITY QUARTERLY, (4), 336-342. This is the National Joint Committee for Learning Disabilities (NJCLD) definition.]

Learning Support Agreement (LSA). Used by Elliot Masie to describe “ a short statement detailing the learning support services that one can expect to receive when they sign up for a training experience.”

Lifelong Learning. "...lifelong learning refers to the process by which individuals continue to develop their knowledge, skills, and attitudes over their lifetimes." From "The Concept of Lifelong Learning" in LIFELONG LEARNING AND PUBLIC POLICY. Washington, D.C.: Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1978, p. 1

Mathemagenic. A term originally coined by Ernst Rothkopf (1970) that referred to "those activities which give birth to learning", such as "systematic eye fixations while reading". Laurillard (1993) modified Rothkopf's definition by defining it as " "The concept of mathemagenic activities expresses exactly the idea that there are activities the learner can carry out that will result in their learning.."  in Draper,S.W. (1997, December7) "Mathemagenic Activities."   http://www.psy.gla.ac.uk/~steve/ mathemagenic.html    Retrieved March 3, 2004.

Millenials. The name given to the generation of 60 million people born between 1979 and 1994, according to the Center for Digital Education.

Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) "learning that occurs largely from the influence of students' self-generated thoughts, feelings, strategies, and behaviors, which are oriented toward the attainment of goals " in Schunk, D. H., & Zimmerman, B. J. (1998). Self-Regulated Learning: From Teaching to Self-Reflective Practice. New York: Guilford Press.

TRIO. "TRIO is Educational Opportunity for Low-Income and Disabled Americans." The official definition of TRIO can be found on this web page http://www.trioprograms.org/home.html , one of the program initiatives of the Council for Opportunity in Education web site Choose Trio/What is Trio?

Virtual Learning Support Specialist.

Virtual Learning Support Specialist is one who assist students to develop or improve their learning and study skills through email. chat, discussion forums, or other web based support. A virtual learning support specialist can be attached to an online course.